October 15, 2001

As Anxiety Grows, Bush Pledges U.S. Will Stay Vigilant

By R. W. APPLE Jr.

The White House

President Bush on Saturday with the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — With
anxiety about bioterrorism gripping
large sections of the United States,
President Bush said today, "We are
taking strong precautions, we are
vigilant, we are determined, the
country is alert, and the great power
of the American nation will be felt."

But in his weekly radio address,
Mr. Bush offered no more specific or
detailed reassurances to an ever
more jittery American public.

Nor did he provide any new details
of the incidents of anthrax exposure
in Florida and, most recently, at
NBC News in New York, and the
arrival of a letter at The New York
Times with an unidentified substance, which was turned over to
health authorities for testing. The
president, who was at Camp David
for the weekend, made no comment
about the possibility that the incidents might be linked to one another
or to the terrorist attacks in New
York and Washington on Sept. 11.

In his address, the president declared, "I understand that many
Americans are feeling uneasy," adding: "The best defense against terrorism is a strong offensive against
terrorists. That work continues."

Today, American warplanes and
missile-firing ships resumed full-
scale attacks on Afghanistan. The
Pentagon acknowledged that a 2,000-
pound satellite-guided bomb had hit
a residential area of the capital, Kabul, as a result of a targeting error,
most likely causing civilian casualties.

The bomb was dropped by a Navy
F-18 flying off an aircraft carrier in
the Arabian Sea, officials said. The
Pentagon said in a statement that
the United States military was not
intentionally striking civilian targets
and expressed regret for the loss of
life.

As the seventh day of the air assault unfolded with raids on Kabul
and Kandahar, Taliban leaders rejected Mr. Bush's offer on Thursday
to consider halting the attacks if they
handed over Osama bin Laden,
promising to fight to their last
breath. They also claimed that the
airstrikes had killed more than 300
civilians, a claim that was impossible to verify.

Mr. Bush said in his radio address
that American military actions had
"achieved the goals of the first phase
of our campaign."

He continued: "We have disrupted
the terrorist network inside Afghanistan. We have weakened the Taliban's military. And we have crippled
the Taliban's air defenses. American
forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan, and we will use that dominance to make sure terrorists can no
longer freely use Afghanistan as a
base of operations."

It was evident that a series of
events over the last three days — Mr.
Bush's repeated appeals to the public
to go about their normal lives, the
anthrax scare and a general warning
from the F.B.I. that new terrorist
attacks were imminent — had created a mood of fear and apprehension
in the country.

Vice President Dick Cheney said
the government had "continuing reporting" to suggest that "the threat
level had gone up," but he added that
specifics were lacking.

Public officials as well as ordinary
citizens complained about getting
mixed signals. Mayor Thomas M.
Menino of Boston, for example, said
that "contradictory statements from
Washington" made it hard for people
to know what to do. One thing many
were doing was besieging doctors
and depleting supplies of antibiotics
used against anthrax at stores
across the country.

Mr. Cheney, on the "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," conceded on
Friday that "it's bound to be a confusing time for people." Although
different departments of government have different responsibilities,
he said, "we try to do everything we
can to have one coherent message
out there." He said the government
was "looking for balance and reasonableness," however difficult that is,
because it was conscious that terrorists would win if they managed to
close down American society.

The aircraft carrier Theodore
Roosevelt passed through the Suez
Canal today and should be on station
in the Arabian Sea within three days.
That means that by the middle of
next week the United States will have
assembled off Pakistan the biggest
concentration of naval power since
the Persian Gulf war of a decade
ago.

In addition to the Theodore Roosevelt, the carriers Enterprise, Carl
Vinson and Kitty Hawk will be in the
area, with all except the Kitty Hawk
carrying their full complements of
strike aircraft. The Kitty Hawk is
expected to be used as a floating
base for helicopters as well as commando units.

A second phase of the allied operation against Afghanistan appears to
be rapidly taking shape. After initial
reluctance, first Pakistan and then
Uzbekistan — one nation directly to
the east of Afghanistan, the other
directly to the north — have agreed
in recent days to the use of some of
their air bases for military operations.

More than 1,000 American troops
from the Army's 10th Mountain Division have arrived at an Uzbek airfield near the border with Pakistan.
They will provide security for American units carrying out search and
rescue operations needed once
ground combat gets under way.

American marines are expected to
go ashore shortly in Pakistan, and
British marines, now in Oman, are
also expected to move quickly into
position.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
is expected to leave on Sunday for
Pakistan and India, continuing his
coalition-building efforts and, as one
State Department official said today,
"bringing the Pakistanis up to date
on our latest thinking about Afghanistan, including what more they can
do to help."

A window for intensified activity
appears to be opening as antiterrorist forces come together. Tuesday
will bring a new moon to the area,
with the kind of darkness with which
special forces commanders prefer to
cloak their operations. Advanced infra-red and other technology gives
allied forces a real edge in night
fighting.

In addition, Tuesday opens the last
lunar month before the onset of Ramadan, the Muslim holy period when
attacks on an Islamic country like
Afghanistan would be likely to
arouse much more vocal protests in
other Islamic countries. For at least
the next month, weather in the region
should be clear, before the characteristically heavy winter storms.

At the Pentagon on Friday, General Richard B. Myers, the chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that
the bombing campaign was only the
beginning of a long war, and he hinted more broadly than he has before
that the fight will go beyond airstrikes to include more unconventional warfare by special forces.

"Many of the conventional efforts
that you see today are stage-setters
for follow-on operations," General
Myers said. "Some of those efforts
may be visible, but many will not."